LUDINGTON, MI – There was plenty to celebrate Friday when Mason County leaders gathered with Consumers Energy officials and Michigan utility regulators to recognize the completion of construction on the Lake Winds Energy Park.

Consumers Energy and White Construction have completed assembly of the 56-turbine, 1.8 megawatt in southern Mason County. The public utility's first wind farm will begin operating sometime in November after testing and grid connections are completed by wind turbine supplier Vestas of North America.

The celebration at the Lincoln Hills Golf Club just north of Ludington was about a more than $250 million investment in Mason County’s Riverton and Summit townships, more than 151,000 worker hours so far for construction, a $7 million payroll and more than $9 million spent with local vendors.

“This is very important to us,” said Consumers Energy President and CEO John Russell. “This is our company’s first wind farm after 125 years. Our company believes in renewable energy. It is clean, reliable and affordable for Michigan.”

The past five years of development have not been easy as a small but vocal group formed to oppose the commercial wind farm that can be seen along U.S. 31 between Ludington and Pentwater. But now that the turbines are in place, public acceptance is growing, according to Kathy McLean, president of the Ludington & Scottville Chamber of Commerce.

“The community reaction has been positive,” McLean said after the construction completion ceremony. “Even those who were skeptical are finding them more attractive than they thought. People are really embracing the energy park.”

No one is a bigger cheerleader for the Lake Winds Energy Park than George Sadler, owner of a 300-acre farm in Riverton Township in the middle of the wind park.

“I find them just perfect,” Sadler said of the turbine constructed in July on the land farmed by his son George. “I’d have more on our land if they would give them to us.”

McLean said the ongoing Lake Winds construction has been a huge boost to the Ludington-area economy. Restaurants and hotels not only had one of their best tourism summer seasons this year but Lake Winds business have given some owners a record year, she said.

And the wind farm has not hindered tourism, a huge portion of the community’s economy, McLean said. Far from it, the wind farm drew more than 1,000 on special chamber tours of the construction sites.

“Lake Winds has not driven away tourism but has just brought more excitement and attention,” the chamber president said.

From a state perspective, Lake Winds Energy Farm with its 100.8 megawatts of new renewable electricity moves the state closer to its goal of having 10 percent of electrical generation coming from renewable sources as is mandated in Michigan’s 2008 landmark energy law.

“The number one renewable energy resource in Michigan is wind,” said John Quackenbush, chairman of the Michigan Public Service Commission. “Wind turbines are now part of the Michigan landscape.”

Quackenbush said wind energy brings hundreds of millions of dollars of investment to the state, provides an environmentally cleaner source of electricity and creates a new tax base for local communities.

Lake Winds is expected to provide $29 million in new revenues for Mason County governments over the next 20 years. On top of that, the construction of the wind farm created a $33 million boost to the local economy and $4 million annually in economic impact for the ongoing operation and maintenance of the wind turbines.

Finally, those gathered at Lincoln Hills Golf Club Friday paid tribute to the late Darren Owens, Consumers Energy’s construction manager for Lake Winds until his death July 29 in a motorcycle accident in southern Michigan. Wind turbine Unit 8 will be dedicated to Owens' service to the company.